“That was probably the best second half that we’ve played all year. Rutgers is a difficult team to play against, but we played tremendous at both ends of the floor. They’re definitely not an easy team to play against. Our guys did a great job of passing the ball tonight, in particular Rashad Bishop. It was probably the best game of his career. We had great leadership in the locker room and in the timeout huddle. Our effort in the second half was off the charts. It was as good as it’s been in a long time. We took a lot of good shots, too. Our offense has improved in the past few days, and I was extremely pleased with our effort tonight.”

On wearing Rutgers down throughout the game…

“It’s always our game plan to wear the other team down. I definitely have respect for Rutgers’ intensity level after tonight. They are going to make you beat them. They’re not going to just give you the game. We had to grind out a win tonight, but we were able to play extremely hard in the second half.”

On the play of seniors tonight…

“Rashad [Bishop], in particular, had great leadership in the locker room and tremendous leadership in the huddle during timeouts. Larry Davis showed us great leadership, as well. Both those guys had great energy and intensity tonight. It shows in their play, too. They played with more energy and urgency, and they have a lot of time invested here. They’ve got goals they want to meet and they understand that they have to make it happen this season. It’s now or never, and that sense of urgency is definitely rubbing off on the rest of the team.”

“It was just my teammates finding me in the right spots. We went over it in practice that whoever was open, they’d take it.”

On Cash’s dive on the floor …

“That was a big play. It got the crowd into it, and it got us back into.”

On taking more shots …

“No, it’s just taking the good shots. If I’m open, I’m going to shoot it. I feel like I’m in good spots, but I’m just not open. I take the shots when I’m open. If I’m not open, I’m not going to force it and find the open man.”

“I don’t know the reason for it. I think we come out slow because we were trying to figure out what they were doing on offense. We were trying to figure out the play calls. We have to get more focused on still doing that but without letting our whole focus is on that.”

On wearing Rutgers down …

“We knew if we could speed the game up and get them to do the extra dribble or turn around, it would help at the end of the game.”

On defense in second half

“It’s tough to win if you keep letting teams get points in the paint. Coming out of half time, we were trying to take away their first look to disrupt their offense.”

On Anthony McClain’s performance tonight

“Biggie is always ready to play no matter how long he sits. It was just their night tonight. They were in the flow of the offense and they started knocking down shots.”

On the West Virginia game …

“We thought about it, but the coaches haven’t brought it to our attention. We haven’t done film or preparation. We were focused on getting ready for tonight. Us as players have talked about it, but not enough to a point that it took away from this game.”

MIKE RICE

Rutgers Head Coach

Opening statement …

“I thought they had a certain second half. They made their run and I certainly helped them with that run. I liked that we had some toughness, cut it back down. We just couldn’t seem to get a defensive rebound or make a certain play, whether it was a layup , or those things you have to take advantage of when you’re playing a team with 17 wins. Again, Cincinnati is deeper, stronger and they have a nice ball club. We had our opportunities but didn’t take advantage enough.We couldn’t make a three pointer, which doesn’t help.”

Was Cincinnati’s depth a factor in tonight’s game?

“Every coach probably says no, but I think they were. They always came in waves and you say no but we made some mental mistakes. James Beatty and Mike Coburn, whether it was overpenetration or taking care the ball, shorting their passes, yeah I would day that was a factor and they certainly go deep.”

On turnovers …

“We were frantic for some reason. Again, they started making a couple of more shots, we still have to play with the same pace and we didn’t we tried to speed up. We talked about playing at our pace the whole game. Credit Cincinnati, whether it was wearing us down or speeding us up, they got it to their pace. It was just three or four minutes, but they hit us with a hook and we kind of went down on one knee. We got back up but we just couldn’t get the lead.”